Thing 20: Slideshare (with a bit of Prezi thrown in)

Well the end is now in sight as I begin my posts for my final week of 'things' (although I am still behind schedule at this point!). I have some familiarity with Slideshare but have never really explored it in any depth. As I have left my studying days behind me (although never say never!), I don't really have the use for this kind of software, although there may come a time when I need to use it so getting to grips with it seems like a valuable exercise. If Slideshare was just about presentations then I would favour Prezi which offers a very dynamic experience where you can zoom in and out of presentation media. In fact here is a Prezzi presentation I made myself about The Killing. This is particularly for those people who still think Sarah Lund actually works somewhere in one of the UoS Libraries.....

Back to Slideshare then, which not only hosts presentations, but also documents, PDFs and videos. It has been described as one of the top tools for learning so I spoke to my husband who is a teacher, about it since he uses it quite regularly in his classes.  He pointed out that it as useful to him as a research tool as it is for his students who find it quite straightforward to work with. Comparing it to Prezi though, students find it less appealing as it clearly lacks Prezi's dynamism and interactive features, only being a space to upload presentations rather than create them from scratch.  However, the major advantage of Slideshare is of course that you can use existing presentations or documents as templates and add your own material to them - or 'remix' as Slideshare refers to this practice as. 

I chose one of Phil Bradley's presentations to embed into this blog, and it is just one of many he has created discussing the relationship between libraries and social media. Although very basic in appearance and not especially 'polished,' it does hold a lot of information (perhaps too much?? I found myself tiring a bit around slide number 40....).

   

Why librarians must use social media from Phil Bradley

In conclusion, I think if I am looking for a short presentation, with a bit of flair then I will stick to Prezi, however if I am after tools for educational purposes then I am more likely to go to Slideshare for research. There is a lot going on in this site and unfortunately I have not had the time to explore it in any detail. I will certainly return to Slideshare in the future to see what else it has to offer me.....

More Library related randomness

Before I get back to the more serious matter of actually trying to complete 23 things (which is looking like a bit of a challenge at the moment) I feel I need to share the following find. As we all know, working in a library can be a dangerous occupation. I for one will never forget the day I was nearly crushed to death in the rolling stacks.

Via Dark Roasted Blend

Apparently there is a sub-genre called 'bibliomysteries' - not come across this before but judging by the number of titles dedicated to deadly books it is obviously a popular topic! Here you will find more examples including 'The Mystery of the Human Bookcase' and 'Murder: First Edition'!!

Thing 19 - Wordle & Tagxedo

I enjoyed this 'thing' as it allowed me to be both creative and to come up with as many stereotypical definitions of Scandinavia and Scandinavians that I could think of (I hope my Norwegian colleague never sees this!). Anyway, I found this exercise quite worthwhile and can see how both Wordle and Tagxedo could be used as tools for learning, although within an academic library setting I think their value might be a bit limited. 

My Scandinavian themed Wordle example.

Tagxedo gives you more control over your word clouds than Wordle does, but I feel the site is not particularly user-friendly and is quite clumsily put together. Although this isn't especially relevant, I am increasingly finding that I desire to only access well put together sites, with clear and concise links and good usability. I don't think Tagxedo fulfils this requirement. However again, it is very useful as a tool to create interesting and striking visuals and could be used educationally, for marketing purposes or even just for the sake of art! It is free and quite fun, allowing me to again indulge my Scandinavian obsession (and get a couple of Killing references in there as well!).

Thing 18 : QR Codes

Before beginning this exercise I must admit that I had little time for QR codes. I saw them purely as a consumer advertising ploy and am of the opinion it is just quicker to enter the URL into your browser and go straight to a web page this way, rather than faff around with opening a QR reader and then getting the code to scan correctly. I was however quite intrigued at designing my own, so as instructed,  I went to the following generator and set about creating my code. I started with something basic and produced a code which links to this blog. However, since QR codes are designed to be used on printed materials and largely as marketing tools, I got thinking about how they might be used in the library.

My very boring looking QR Code.

My colleague had the very good idea to make a code for the WSA Library blog posts relating to our new acquisitions, which could be printed on a poster and placed at the loans desk. This would have the dual effect of getting more users to access our blog, and also provide a quick and easy route to seeing what new books we have in the library, rather than accessing this information through WebCat. In other words, the QR code can provide a quick and direct route to a particular website, rather than clicking through more than one link which is obviously more time consuming. I really like this idea and think that other QR codes could be dotted about the library for various purposes (by the MFDs for example with a link to isolutions troubleshooting pages). However, from a widening access to resources perspective, QR codes are problematic. Not everyone has or uses a smartphone or tablet device, so if we were to rely too heavily on QR codes, a number of users would be at a disadvantage. 

The more I look into QR codes though and recognise their value as a marketing tool, the more positive I feel about them. The following page featuring some creative uses of QR codes (including edible QR cookies!) has confirmed that they can be used in unique and innovative ways, and do not need to look like my very ordinary example above.